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I was based at NAS Pensacola in '04 when hurricane ivan came through. The devastation was just unreal. I had never experienced that kind of power. Amazing. We were evacuated to blue angels elementary school, 300 of us Air Force guys and gals and a couple hundred sailors with no power or water. Out digging field latrines to use. You can imagine the nasty of it after a week in p-cola dead summer heat. I feel for you all if you are in the path. Take precautions and protect your family.

We're a dead on target in central /southern NJ. Hopefully it'll lose a lil steam after hitting land. But there predicting for it to actually gain some...figures. I put away almost everything in the yard as far as patio furniture and umbrellas. Im not removing Gazebo, I'm just gonna take off the roof so it doesnt act as a sail. Wish i could buy a generator, but I spent alot of money this summer already. Our area tends to lose power alot in storms, but oh well.
Food shoppin tonite,
stock ice in coolers,
keep fridge closed,
put immediates in coolers to keep cold in fridge
everybody in the house shower saturday night...cuz if we lose power, we have a well and septic system...so we would lose pumps as well. Which also means no toilet flushing...OMG

NJ is already in state of emergency...shore residents are evacuating since last night.

Im sticking it out...I love watching natures wrath.

Then again when I see what the damage is when it hits land, I'll decide from there.

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. ~ Sir Isaac Newton

Clean your bath tub real good and fill it with water. Another thing I do when we have a threat of power outage, take a couple of NEW plastic garbage cans, line them with plastic bags and fill them as well. between the tub and a couple garbage cans you can have a weeks worth or more of water.

water is the big issue. You can go for several days without food, but water is critical.

Clean your bath tub real good and fill it with water. Another thing I do when we have a threat of power outage, take a couple of NEW plastic garbage cans, line them with plastic bags and fill them as well. between the tub and a couple garbage cans you can have a weeks worth or more of water.

water is the big issue. You can go for several days without food, but water is critical.

Good luck kids, this is going to be interesting

+ get your stuff ready now. The bucket you are going to use to force flush the toilet - get it out and put it in the bathroom. The clean bucket you are going to use for a basin to wash up - get it out now. Some baby wipes or whatever - all that stuff find it, clean it, and figure out the "what if?" scenario. When your house is pitch black getting hammered with wind and rain, that's not the time to go rummaging around for stuff.

Admittedly, I go a little overboard on preparedness but I feel a strong sense of responsibility to my wife and kids.

If you have not started your generator in awhile, get out there and start your generator today. That way tomorrow you won't be standing in 110mph wind/rain trying to get it started.

I try to start mine every 3 months. I let it run for 15-20 minutes, shut her down and put her away.

if you leave it in a Garage that's attached to your home, for Gods Sake, leave the garage door and a door or window open a crack. If your garage is not attached, leave the garage door open about 6", if you close it completely, the CO will build up and choke the carb off and it will shut down.

i do a 12 noon saturday 30 minute run since install back in 2004,,,top it off beforee run to power the house....and gallon container the balance of the GAS to fill it up up...DANGER do not try to fill from a 5 GALLON RED gas can with the genny running very dangerous and have extra oil handy some have LO OIL shut offs....it is like a boat engine is used during the run......shut your frig off before restart from black out let the gen run 5 minutes then dial in the refer....you might be too quick on the power up and short cycle it

Another thing to remember here is this storm, although it may have weakened a bit in intensity, it is still a physically quite large...ans so the effects extend far away from the center.

I'm on the east coast of Florida and yesterday Irene was going by us, over 200 miles offshore, and still I experienced winds in excess of 40-50 mph five miles inland.

If you do have a portable generator, please...please...please do not run it in the garage, or God forbid, inside the house. Don't laugh...many folks have killed themselves and their whole families doing stuff like that.

I have a permanent anchor in the concrete apron in front of the garage door with a heavy chain to secure my generator. I don't recall hearing any stories about stolen generators around here...even when we all needed one bad.

Also, if you plan on getting creative and backfeeding your main panel, at least shut off your main. Aside from possibly saving the life of a lineman, if the electric company discovers your backfeeding, they will cut your drop to the house.

In my hurricane experience, I found out the hard way not to create an unbalanced condition for your generator...ie, don't load up too many 115V loads to one side. I fried the stator on my "first" 5500 watt unit that way.

If your whole area is without power, don't expect gas stations to have any power (or gas) either...so stock up for at least 3-4 days. My 5 KW set burns about 5 gallons in 15 hours run time.

conservency is a must during a generator run...normal house lights tv and computers with the frig cycling might top 10 amps 20 tops split on 2-115V CB drop in a panel with 208v into a panel with the pole locked out....